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Hahn concedes last-minute deal falls through

By
Scott MerkinMLB.com

CLEVELAND -- During an 18-day period in July, the White Sox moved Matt Thornton to Boston, Jesse Crain to the Rays and then Jake Peavy to the Red Sox leading up to Wednesday's 3 p.m. CT non-waiver Trade Deadline.

But during a conference call on Wednesday, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn hinted that one other move existed in the near-miss category.

CLEVELAND -- During an 18-day period in July, the White Sox moved Matt Thornton to Boston, Jesse Crain to the Rays and then Jake Peavy to the Red Sox leading up to Wednesday's 3 p.m. CT non-waiver Trade Deadline.

But during a conference call on Wednesday, White Sox general manager Rick Hahn hinted that one other move existed in the near-miss category.

"We actually got a text message at 2:15 this afternoon on a different approach to something we talked about a while back," Hahn said. "For about 35 minutes or so, right up until about five or 10 minutes before the Deadline, it looked like it had legs to the point where I even updated [White Sox chairman] Jerry [Reinsdorf]. It looked like there was a chance of something happening, but in the end we couldn't quite get to an agreement."

Hahn did not specifically address the player at the core of the conversation, keeping with his policy throughout the process leading up to the Deadline. Right fielder Alex Rios, shortstop Alexei Ramirez and right-hander reliever Matt Lindstrom all received interest from other teams but ultimately stayed with the White Sox.

Wednesday's trade fell through when the asking team wanted something a little different right at the end that the White Sox weren't prepared to do, according to Hahn.

"Yes, we had a lot of conversations today and that one right there at the end probably came closest to something happening, but in the end it just didn't make sense for us to do it," Hahn said. "One important thing to keep in mind, we've seen it in recent history, not only with us in making deals after Aug. 1 but even last year with the mammoth deal between the Red Sox and Dodgers, just because the Deadline passes doesn't mean there won't be further deals.

"It just means the opportunities that presented themselves now didn't make sense from a baseball standpoint to close on," Hahn added.